Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad on Oct. 7, 1952.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is the only child of a decorated war veteran and factory worker in the slums of Leningrad. He grew up in a Soviet Union styled communal apartment with two other families — as was typical at the time.

As a teen Putin worked at his school's radio station, where he reportedly played music by the Beatles and other Western rock bands.

The photographer Platon — who took Putin's infamous Time Magazine cover in 2007 — said that Paul is Putin's favorite Beatle, and "Yesterday" is his favorite song.

However, "by [Putin's] own account, his favorite songs are Soviet standards, not Western rock. He has been deeply conservative his whole life," Karen Dawisha wrote in her new book, "Putin's Kleptocracy."

Early on in life, Putin got into judo. He was his university's judo champion in 1974.

Former deputy finance minister and first deputy chairman of the Central Bank Sergey Alaksashenko believes that Putin's love of judo says something about his foreign policy.

"Unlike chess, a judo fighter should not wait for the opponent's move. His strategy is to wait until he gets a chance to execute a single quick move — and then take a step back. Successful judo fighters must anticipate their opponents' actions, make a decisive, preemptive move and try to disable them," he wrote in the Moscow Times.

He also really loved spy novels and TV shows — especially one about a Soviet double agent.

Fictional character Stierlitz, the double-spy, portrayed by Vyacheslav Tikhonov.Wikimedia

Putin reportedly loved the popular 1960s book series turned TV series "17 Moments of Spring" starring the Soviet double-agent Max Otto von Stierlitz (né Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov) who rose up the ranks into Nazi elite during World War II.

Putin said about the series: "What amazed me most of all was how one man's effort could achieve what whole armies could not."

And in a moment of life imitating art, in 1985 the KGB sent Putin to Dresden, East Germany where he lived undercover as a "Mr. Adamov."

A former KGB prison in Potsdam (from back when East Germany existed.)Wikimedia

Reportedly, Putin mastered the German language so well that he could imitate regional dialects. Unlike most KGB agents, Putin liked hanging out with Germans. He was particularly fond of the "German discipline."

But how exactly Putin spent his time in East Germany is relatively unknown. According to the Kremlin, he was awarded the bronze medal "For Faithful Service to the National People's Army."

Additionally, Putin was once investigated for "allegations of favoritism in granting import and export licenses."

... but the case was dismissed pretty quickly "due to lack of evidence."

Back in the early 1990s, Putin was in charge of a deal where $100 million worth of raw materials would be exported in exchange for food for the citizens of St. Petersburg. Although the materials were exported, the St. Petersburg citizens never got the food.

Reportedly, Putin was the one who signed off on the deal — but the Kremlin denies this.

When Sobchak lost the re-election for mayor, the victor offered Putin a job. However, Putin turned it down saying: "It's better to be hanged for loyalty than be rewarded for betrayal."

Putin was the campaign manager for Sobchak's re-election. Vladimir Yakovlev, who had the support of the powerful Moscow mayor, ran against Sobchak and won. He offered Putin a gig in his office, but Putin declined it.

And then — seemingly out of nowhere — Yelstin stepped down as president and named Putin the acting president on New Year's in 1999.

Boris Yeltsin being awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland 1st Class, 2001.Wikimedia

Many people believed that Yeltsin propelled Putin to presidency in order to protect himself: The war in Chechnya was starting to curdle, and his ratings were starting to drop.

Interestingly, one of Putin's first moves was to pardon Yeltsin "immunity from criminal or administrative investigations, including protection of his papers, residence and other possessions from search and seizure."

In his first speech as acting president, Putin promised freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, the right to private property ...

Putin's first public speech as Russia's Acting President, December 31, 1999.YouTube

The exact quote from his speech is:

"I want to warn that by any attempts to go beyond the Russian laws, beyond the Constitution of Russia, will be strongly suppressed. Freedom of speech. Freedom of conscience. Freedom of mass media. Property rights. These basic principles of the civilized society will be safe under the protection of the state."

Putin recognized that the Yeltsin-era oligarchs had the potential to be more powerful than him ... so he struck a deal with them.

Boris Berezovsky.Olivia Harris/Reuters

"In July of [2000], Putin told the oligarchs that he would not interfere with their businesses or renationalize state resources as long as they stayed out of politics — that is, as long as they did not challenge or criticize the president," according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

And then Putin established his reputation as a "man of action" with his handling of the Second Chechen War.

A farewell ceremony for the 331st Airborne Regiment of the 98th Airborne Division withdrawn from Chechnya. (Putin center.)Wikimedia

In 2002, a Moscow theatre was seized by 40 Chechen militants, who were led by the warlord Movsar Barayev, and 129 out of the 912 hostages died during this three-day ordeal.

This was a critical moment for Putin, and many expected his domestic approval to plummet. But his "ruthless handling of the siege and his refusal to negotiate with the hostage-takers further shored up his reputation as a man of action."

In 2004, Putin was re-elected for a second term. He continued to focus on domestic affairs, but drew major criticisms for his crackdowns on the media.

Journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in her apartment lobby after she wrote about corruption in the Russian army with respect to Chechnya. Many in the Western media criticized Putin for failing to protect the media.

Those accused of the murder "testified that Akhmed Zakayev and Boris Berezovksy (one of the Yeltsin-era oligarchs) could be the clients, who ordered the murder of Anna Politkovskaya," according to TASS.

In 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was elected president. One day later, he made Putin the new Prime Minister ... And then Russia got clobbered by the financial crisis.

When the global financial crisis hit, things got really got bad. The Russian economy was slammed particularly hard because it relied heavily on Western investment.

Additionally, the financial crisis really showed just how dependent the Russian economy is on oil and gas, and how intertwined the industry was with the country's political economy, according to the Brookings Institute.

In that same year, Russia got involved in a five-day international conflict — the Russo-Georgian War.

The Russo-Georgia conflict involving Russia, Georgia, and the two regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The two regions have been trying to get formal independence since the 1990s — Russia recognizes the independence, which has been condemned by Western nations.

"After the 2008 conflict, Moscow declared that it would formally recognize the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia's allies Nicaragua and Venezuela followed suit, as did a number of small Pacific island states," according to the BBC.

Two years later, in March 2014, Putin annexed Crimea in one of the most complicated and controversial geopolitical moves of the year.

Ceremony signing the laws on admitting Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia, 21 March 2014.Wikimedia

The ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych "sent a letter to" Putin "requesting that he use Russia's military to restore law and order in Ukraine."

The Russian Parliament granted Putin "broad authority to use military force in response to the political upheaval in Ukraine that dislodged a Kremlin ally and installed a new, staunchly pro-Western government, the Ukrainian government in Kiev threatened war if Russia sent troops further into Ukraine," reported The New York Times.

On March 2, Russia took complete control of Crimea, and on March 16, an "overwhelming majority" of Crimeans voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.

No one's quite sure what Putin's next move will be, but since he's considering a fourth term, we may be seeing much more from him until at least 2024 ...

Back when Putin was a deputy mayor in St. Petersburg, his inner circle cronies referred to him as "Boss." Today, they refer to him as "Tsar," and Forbes just named him the most powerful person in 2014.